TheCable

Shareholders of Lafarge Africa Plc, listed as WAPCO on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), on Monday traded off shares of the company on the news of a loss.

In its annual statement released on the NSE, the company announced a loss of N34 billion before tax and N34.6 billion after tax for Q4 2017.

This is lower than the N16.8 billion profit after tax declared for the year ended December 31, 2016.

“The board of directors is proposing a gross dividend of N1.50kobo (2016: N1.05kobo) on every ordinary share in issue amounting to N13, 010, 143, 705.00 (2016: N5,754,771,087.45),” the annual report read.

“The total dividend proposed if approved by shareholders is payable from the pioneer profits and not subject to deduction of withholding tax. The dividend is subject to approval by the shareholders at the annual general meeting on 16th May 2018.”

When trading activities resumed at 9am on Monday, Lafarge shares, which closed at N44.2 on Friday, was trading at N42.

This already indicates a loss of N2.2k per share.

By 11am, investors had traded 476,241 shares on the bourse at N41, which signifies a total drop of N3.2k per share in two hours.

Although the group reported increased revenue from N219 billion in 2016 to N299 billion in 2017, it also reported increased cost of sales.